KKR top table with Uthappa and spinners
In an error-strewn match, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav bowled equally immaculate spells, but it was Kolkata Knight Riders who came away with their third win of the season and jumped to the top of the points table
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
On Thursday, Sunil Narine and Gautam Gambhir ran up 76 in in 34 balls, taking KKR to their best Powerplay score. They were also helped by some lacklustre bowling from Kings XI's seamers, who kept feeding Narine with hip-high balls, which he comfortably swatted away, taking 23 off his 37 runs through the leg side. At the other end, they kept offering Gambhir width.
Uthappa thickly edged his first ball to the keeper but got away. Dhawan then missed a direct hit when Uthappa was on 15. Uthappa went on to bring up a fifty off 27 balls. It wasn't wild slogging. He read Rashid's googlies and lined up the short balls that sat up on a surface that was drier than the one used for the Kings XI game. Uthappa took Rashid for 21 runs in 12 balls, the most any batsman has scored off him in this IPL.
In the previous season, Bhuvneshwar had picked up 13 wickets in 162 balls in the death overs - the joint highest with Shane Watson. After bowling two overs in the Powerplay, he returned to the attack in the 18th over and nabbed Pandey with a slower offcutter. In his next over, Bhuvneshwar cleaned up Colin Grandhomme with an inswinging yorker.
Warner and Dhawan punished width, and hit a collective eight fours in the Powerplay. The introduction of Kuldeep, however, applied the brakes on the chase.
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo